Muslim Group in Russia’s Tatarstan “Waiting for Doomsday” - Local TV

Following a recent incident in Penza Region in which members of a religious sect barricaded themselves in an underground shelter, saying they were waiting for Doomsday, a report in a Tatarstan newspaper told its readers there were also sect members in Kazan. However, a local TV station said the people in question were living in seclusion but were not hermits. The following is the text of an Efir TV report on 23 November:

[Presenter] Following the events in Penza Region, a Tatarstan newspaper has told its readers that there are sect members in Kazan too. It said that 35 people, including a number of children, had bricked themselves inside a house and did not let anyone in. It is only natural that already early in the morning police and journalists from practically all the TV channels arrived at house No 41 in Torfyanaya Street. However, no negotiations were needed and there was no attack on the house either. The so-called hermits came out to journalists themselves and even gave an interview.

[Correspondent] The initial information about three dozen people having locked themselves inside a house and not wanting to talk to anyone was shocking. However, having come to the site, the police found this situation was not so frightening.

[Damir Nurmiyev, captioned as the commander of battalion No 7 of the Tatarstan Interior Ministry patrol regiment] According to their senior spokesman there is nothing happening here. There are just 30 people living here. They do not let in strangers and live according to their own rules, following the Koran.

[Correspondent] It turned out that not far from the settlement of Derbyshky near Kazan there is a Muslim community of 35 people, who united themselves under a black-white-green flag symbolizing the dark soul, turning to religion and cleansing. The Party of Allah, as these people call themselves, has been there for 11 years already. Five years ago men, women and children separated from society and decided to live in seclusion.

[Gabdelkhak Valiyev, a member of the religious community] Doomsday could be today or tomorrow. It is only Allah who knows this. We should be waiting for it and praying every day.

[An unidentified boy from the community] We do not go to school. They teach us here.

[Correspondent] It became clear that people were waiting for Doomsday quite peacefully, bringing up their children and spending their days in prayer. They have also heard about the hermits in Penza.

[Umar Ganiyev, a member of the religious community] They have the wrong faith. They say: a Son of God, God, and the Trinity. This is all wrong. There is only one Allah who knows everything. Nobody knows when Doomsday will be.

[Correspondent] At the end of the interview the Muslims said that their ideologist, a certain Fayzrakhman Sattarov, was a messenger of Allah on earth. And you should believe this or a comet would come and destroy the whole planet as well as the house in Torfyanaya Street. It appears that having received this information, gutter press journalists drew a parallel with the Penza hermits.

[Video shows men with long beards and in Muslim headwear, women in Muslim dress with faces covered with scarves, children, the black- white-green flag above a small log house.]

Originally published by Efir TV, Kazan, in Russian 1600 23 Nov 07.

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